Research Reports

Regulation has always been the bugbear of the financial sector. On the one hand, it is a necessary part of stable industry growth. On the other, regulatory requirements are one of the biggest challenges for banks today; the global banking industry spends an estimated US$270 billion a year on compliance-related costs. Nowhere is the regulatory challenge more acute than in Asia Pacific, where a confluence of cultures, political systems, languages, and financial systems come together daily across the region.

Challenges for the financial industry are growing. Third party non-bank financials threaten the core businesses of traditional banks and institutions. Trade tensions are escalating between the US and China, and even the US and Canada, and threaten to take the global economy on a different path, which may ultimately have a dramatic effect on the business of banks. Further, as interest rates rise, the stark realities of a worsening economic environment may threaten existing loans and products. Finally, the biggest challenge for financial institutions over the next five years: regulations.

Since the launch of real-time payments in Japan in 1973, the financial industry has been on a path of rapid modernization as governments and financial sectors around the world move to instant payment systems. In many ways, real-time payments are a natural evolution of the industry, providing better, faster and cheaper payments domestically, and increasingly, cross-border.

As the financial industry continues to grow and innovative, banks are facing increasing challenges to keep up with the rapid pace of change, especially in the payments segment. Payment hubs could be the answer.

Asia is one of the most significant trading regions in the world including the factory of the world, China. Payment systems, cultures, and regulatory systems are all diverse which makes having a European style SEPA challenging in Asia. What is the future of cross-border payments in Asia?

Despite all of the hype around blockchain and cryptocurrency, the most impact will come from whether or not national governments will shift to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). A new report looks at the opportunities and challenges as well as the stark implications for citizens.

Even as the entire financial industry changes rapidly, nowhere has the change been as evident as in the payments segment. Around the world, banks, consumers, and businesses are making a shift in the way they exchange value.

Most of the research into real-time payments has focused on potential new revenue streams and business models for banks to serve traditional retail and commercial customers. Although this research is valuable, it overlooks an essential segment of the population: the underbanked and financially excluded. Until now.

2017 was a year of significant interest into blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, and its application in China’s financial industry. Has the reality finally matched the hype or is the adoption of blockchain still lagging? What are the key user cases that are emerging and is it necessary for users to replace traditional technology with the new blockchain technology?

After an eventful year with many notable developments in the burgeoning field of fintech, our 8th annual Top-10 Asia Pacific Fintech Trends Report, released in conjunction with the webinar, features an in depth analysis of the 10 most important fintech trends to look out for in Asia this year.

In 2017, new bank account regulation was introduced limiting each individual to 3 different types of debit accounts. The purpose of these new regulations is to put a restraint on Money Laundering and prevent telecommunication fraud. While this new regulation will affect people’s lives, it also puts the banks in a position of opportunity where they are able to adapt to the change and use it to their advantage.

With Africa’s economy growing at such a rapid rate there has been concerns that the growth has not been inclusive to the low-income households. In 2007 M-Pesa revolutionised the way that Kenyans access banking products and it’s with this notion that WeChat went on to create WeChat Africa. Due to the recognized success of M-Pesa, WeChat Africa is already excelling with various partners and is aiming to further expand the apps inclusion and make the app the focal point of a person’s day to day life.

Cybercrime is now one of the most serious threats faced by capital markets. However, Asian capital markets have traditionally lagged their Western counterparts. In this report by Kapronasia, we analyse the current state of cybersecurity in the Asian capital markets, before discussing the potential cybersecurity strategies these markets could deploy.

Asian exchanges have come a long way in the past decade and are now highly competitive, both technologically and through their product offerings. In this report by Kapronasia, we analyse the overall Asian exchange landscape through several key factors, before taking a more detailed look into each of the region's leading markets.

Being the first country to fully integrate digital and mobile payments, the Chinese payment market is unlike any other in the world. However, what does this unique situation mean for the traditional payment card industry in China? In this report by Kapronasia, we take a look at the key challenges and opportunities faced by the industry.